Golden Shelf Elf Award - Weekly award given to a class that exhibits the best library behavior for the week. The class gets their picture on the Wall o' Fame and also gets to keep the Golden Shelf Elf Award in their classroom for the week.
Shelf Elf Award - Given out twice a year to one student who exemplifies the best library behavior and who can be looked at as future shelf elf! These students ALWAYS use their shelf markers, are leaders in the library, and can be called upon to help out whenever needed!
A couch potato award can be given to students if you have a "comfy chair" in your library. This pass enables the student to sit with a friend in the special designated area to read.
For this night, I always do a fun trivia question regarding the library: How many books are checked out in a year? How many books in the library? When was the first book every published? What is the most popular book to be checked out? . Families are invited to the library to try to answer the question and 1 winner will be chosen for a free pack of books.
I also always make sure to have free books available to take home and keep.
Parents are also encouraged to sign up for a FREE school library card where they can check out 20 books at a time for 3 weeks.
Research Rangers:
Each week on Friday, a question is posted for students to answer. The questions force the students to use the research tools they need to know about: dictionary, encyclopedia, newspapers, internet, thesaurus, atlas, almanac, and informational texts. They put their answer on a small slip of a paper. Each week, I choose 1 4th grader and 1 5th grader who answered the question correctly to join the Research Rangers club. They receive a small plastic Ranger badge with their name on (Oriental Trading has these) and a free book. They are also invited to the 2 parties we have (one in December and one in May) to celebrate their Research Ranger status.
Beagle Book Club
For students grade 3, 4, and 5. Each month a book from the South Carolina Children's Book Award list is picked. Students read that book, take an AR test with an 80% passage rate or better, and are admitted into that month's book club meeting. At the end of the month, a special guest comes and book talks to the book with them. Students eat lunch in the library while they talk about the book and then they have a fun activity with the special guest speaker for that book. So much fun!
Flip for Reading Club
Students will enjoy reading about different genres in the library. Each month they will choose a different genre to read. They will write a book talk script and work with a partner to create a video using the flip cams. These videos may be shown on the morning news or posted to the website. Students will receive a CD of all the book talks at the end of the year. Check out some of the book talks students created.
Battle of the Books
This program is for 4th and 5th grade students. Every year our district picks 10 books from the 20 listed South Carolina book nominees. Student that choose to participate must post about three of these books on the BOB blog by January 1st. The second week of January students will meet on Tuesdays and Fridays to practice answering questions about these books. A school competition is help the end of March and a district competition is held in April. Check out the Battle of the Books website for more information.
Shelf Elf Student Helpers
Includes 10-12 5th graders who maintain A's and B's for grades and who exhibit the highest quality of school behavior. Students must apply to become a member and are interviewed. During the interview, the students must answer questions about how to shelve, giving good book recommendations, etc.
Students have a chance in 5th grade to be shelf helper.They come in before school to straighten their shelf or shelves and make sure they are nice and neat. These students have their picture put on their shelf.
Students pay $5 to be able to put a special bookplate in a brand new book that dedicates the book to someone who has been a hero in their life. Replaces the typical Birthday Book Club.
Students pay $10 at the beginning of the year to have a special bookplate in a brand new book. This student is shown on the morning news show, has his or her picture taken with the book and is the first to check it out of the library.
Awarding Great Behaviors:
Back to School Night:
Research Rangers:
Beagle Book Club
Flip for Reading Club
Battle of the Books
Shelf Elf Student Helpers
Adopt a Book Shelf
Heroes Book Club
Birthday Book Club
Dressing up...Author Visits...and Other Opportunities for Making Memories